


Desert Oasis

by SuburbanSun



Category: Palm Springs (2020)
Genre: Banter, F/M, Missing Scene, Picnics, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28140138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuburbanSun/pseuds/SuburbanSun
Summary: It's probably his 3,000th November 9th, and Nyles just wants to blow something up.
Relationships: Nyles/Sarah Wilder
Comments: 14
Kudos: 22
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Desert Oasis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [muffin_song](https://archiveofourown.org/users/muffin_song/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide!

“It’s here somewhere. I swear it was here. I’ve driven by it, like, nine thousand times at this point.” Nyles grimaced as he peered out the window at the never-ending arid landscape. 

He heard a giggle from his right, and he turned to see Sarah reclining in her seat, one bare foot propped on the dash, the other hanging out the open window. She smiled lazily and her sunglasses slipped down her nose. The very picture of relaxation. Nyles remembered that phase from his earlier solo loops, the chilled-out, mellow one that hit between bouts of intense panic and relentless nihilism. 

_It was kind of an awesome phase,_ he thought to himself. If he could bottle that phase and sell it as a drug, he’d probably make a zillion dollars. 

“What’s so funny?”

She laughed again. “Nothing. It’s just— isn’t this what always happens in the desert in the movies? A desperate man, wandering, lost, afraid—” 

“Hey, I’m not _afraid_ —”

“ _—petrified_ ,” she continued, really hamming it up if you asked Nyles. “Trudging through sand, barely able to drag one foot in front of the other, when all of a sudden, he sees it!” She pulled her foot back into the car and fumbled a hand under her seat to find the latch, jolting into an upright position. “An oasis on the horizon!” She tugged off her sunglasses and shielded her eyes with one hand, gawking into the middle distance. 

Nyles rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t hide a smile. 

“Is that water he sees?” She shook her head. “No. Is it the fountain of youth?” 

“Who needs it? Not like we can age, anyway.” 

She ignored him. “Not that either. No, it’s something even more special, more rare, something _life-changing!_ ” Sarah turned to him and pressed the hand that still clutched her sunglasses to her chest. “A _Big Billy Bob’s Stars ‘N Stripes Fireworks Emporium_.” 

“Uh huh.” Nyles nodded as he turned his attention back to the road, to the barren desert landscape where the little fireworks shack _should_ have been. “Nice little improv bit there. I’d love to come see your troupe perform sometime. And it’s _Big Bob’s._ No Billy.” 

Sarah feigned concern. “What happened to Billy?” 

“There was never a Billy!” Nyles huffed.

“Just like there was never a middle-of-nowhere highway fireworks emporium?” Sarah shot back, and he sighed. 

“Maybe you’re right. But I swear to you, I drove up and down this highway a gazillion times when this all first started for me. And every time, I thought, ‘hey, cool, fireworks, I should stop and pick some up sometime!’ And I never did.” He craned his neck to look out at the landscape again— still nothing. Well, a tumbleweed or two, maybe some old fencing, but nothing that they could make explode. 

Sarah adjusted her seat back to a normal position, then frowned. “You don’t think… I mean, there’s no way things are actually changing _within_ the loops, is there?” 

“What’s that thing?” Nyles rapped both thumbs on the steering wheel. It was on the tip of his tongue. “That thing. They talk about it on doctor shows a lot. Something’s razor?” 

“Occam’s razor?” Sarah supplied.

“Yeah, that’s the guy. So yeah. How’s it go again? ‘The simplest explanation is usually the correct one?’ So, if we set aside the fact that, you know, we’re stuck in an endless time loop for which there _is_ no actual explanation and all that…” 

“...it’s way more likely that you’re just remembering the wrong highway,” Sarah finished. 

He grimaced again, drummed his thumbs on the wheel again. “Yep.” 

Sarah hummed thoughtfully, propping her feet back up on the dashboard. “Well. We can’t go back. The wedding’s gotta be in full swing by now.” She paused. “Quick and painless death?” 

He might have considered it— hey, it’s a way to pass the time— but he’d spotted something up ahead on the side of the road. Not a fireworks emporium, but it might do. 

“Nah. Got a better idea.” 

A few minutes later, he was coming out of a dusty gas station carrying two plastic bags full of snacks and a case of beer, a little bell jangling behind him. He met Sarah’s eyes through the windshield and gestured with his chin; she nodded and reached across the car, unlocking the driver’s side door and popping it open for him. 

“Thanks,” he said, sidling into his seat, trying not to drop anything. “Can you grab some of this?” 

“What is all this junk?” 

“Ah, but Sarah, it’s _not_ junk. These are _roadside delicacies_.” 

She barked out a laugh, but took the bags from him so he could start the car and pull out of the parking lot. She started to paw through one of the bags. “Okay, I see Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, good. Pretzel M&Ms, also good. Big League Chew? What are we, seven?” 

“Oh, so the Cheetos and M&Ms are refined adult hors d'oeuvres but you draw the line at Big League Chew?” He drove a little ways down the highway, just far enough to be out of sight of the gas station, before pulling off onto the shoulder. “Grab me a piece of that, actually.” 

Shaking her head, Sarah ripped open the package and pulled out a handful of bright pink strips. She reached over and dangled them just out of reach in front of his mouth, and he chomped at them like a seal, biting back a laugh. 

She was fun. Niles still harbored a bit of regret for getting her stuck in the loop with him, but he was also kind of glad she was there. 

Once he’d managed to snag all the gum, he reached into the backseat where he’d stashed the case of beer and nodded for the vast openness he could see through her passenger side window. “Let’s go!” 

“Go where?” she asked. “Is this an _invisible_ fireworks emporium now? Pretty cool if so.” But he was already out of the car, scouting for a good spot amidst the cracked dirt and sparse desert grass. Moments later, she followed him, the plastic gas station bags crinkling with every step. 

“Think this’ll work?” 

“Work for… starting a brush fire? Opening a Hellmouth? What’re we talkin’, here?” 

“Hand me the bags?” She did. He dug through one, then the other, ‘til he found what he was looking for and pulled them out proudly. 

Sarah looked at the two plastic packs in his hand and quirked an eyebrow. “Somehow I don’t think we need to worry about rain out here.” 

He shook his head. “You’re not the only one who can improvise.” He ripped one of the packets open with his teeth, then the other, pulling out a pair of shiny, blue plastic ponchos. With a flourish, he spread them over the dirt, fanning them out to take up as much room as possible. When he was satisfied, he stood back up and grinned at her. “Voila! Makeshift picnic blanket.” 

Her gaze went from him, down to the blue plastic, then back up again, an incredulous little smile on her face. She shook her head with a chuckle, then plopped down onto one of the ponchos. “Then let’s have a picnic.” 

  
~  
  


“Something you did in a past life, maybe?” 

Nyles propped himself up on one elbow and looked down at Sarah, who was lying on her back on the shiny plastic. She tossed a Sour Patch Kid in the air and caught it in her mouth on the first try. 

“Nah, I don’t really believe in that stuff."

Sarah scoffed. “Yeah, well, I didn’t really believe in infinite time loops ‘til today. Well. A few ‘todays’ ago, at least.” 

He shrugged, and the motion made his fist scrunch against his cheek. Through his squinted vision, the desert sun seemed to almost shimmer and sparkle. He wondered if he should have picked up a bottle of sunscreen back at the gas station, then remembered a sunburn would never last. Not for him. Not for either of them. 

“I kinda gave up on the why awhile back,” he said. “Gotta live in the moment, you know?”

An amused smile played at her lips. “You’ll worry about it tomorrow?” 

He chuckled. “Sure. Tomorrow.”

“It’s almost…” she began, then trailed off, biting the head off another Sour Patch Kid and chewing thoughtfully as she blinked up at the cloudless sky. Nyles waited for her to continue, and when she didn’t, he reached out and nudged her elbow. 

“What?” 

Sarah frowned. “It’s just— it’s almost nice. You know? When everything starts careening out of control here, it’s not so bad, because it’s all just going to reset in the morning.” She popped the rest of the gummy candy into her mouth. “Here, we can kind of just… try things, test out a hypothesis, see if it works, and if not, oh well, we’ll try again tomorrow and maybe there will be less careening. It’s kind of… refreshing, in a way.”

It had been a long time (eras? Eons? He wasn’t even sure how to measure, anymore) since Nyles had looked at his situation with rose-colored glasses like that, but he couldn’t help but smile down at her. “Yeah. Refreshing.” 

They lapsed into silence for a moment, comfortable silence, before Sarah let her head swing to the side so she could look at him full on. 

“Nyles?”

“Yeah?”

“There never was a Billy Bob, was there? This was all just a ploy to get me out to the desert and live out some lifelong romantic picnic daydream of yours, wasn’t it?” 

He made a face at her. “I mean, first of all, _no_ , we’ve already established that there was no Billy Bob. It was _Big_ Bob.”

She grinned, and it lit up her whole face. “Yeah, yeah. Face it, you’ve always wanted to get a girl out to the desert with a picnic blanket and tiny sandwiches and all that bullshit, and this was the next best thing. Your little picnic dream date.” 

When Nyles thought back, he wasn’t sure he _had_ ever been on a picnic before. Misty sure as hell wasn’t the picnic type, unless it was staged for her Instagram, and he didn’t think the idea had ever come up with any of the girls he’d dated before her. 

And yeah, it was kind of nice. 

“Look, all I’ll say,” he began, then propped himself up so he could get a better look at her. “All I’ll say is, if this had been a date—which I know it’s obviously not, since that would be a ridiculous idea—”

“Right, ridiculous. Absurd, even.”

“—then it _might_ have been the best date I’d ever been on.” 

Sarah raised both eyebrows and tipped her sunglasses down her nose. “Really?" 

He nodded. “Really.” 

She watched him for a beat longer, then sat up, crossing her legs underneath her and picking up her half-empty can of beer to hold out. “Well then— cheers to that.” 

Nyles picked up his beer and tapped the can against hers with an easy smile. “Cheers.” 

“Let’s see,” she said, taking a sip of her beer and wrinkling her nose— he wished they’d picked up a cooler and a bag of ice at the gas station, because warm beer he could tolerate, but hot beer really was disgusting. Maybe next time. “I’m thinking of hitting up that shooting range down the road from the resort tomorrow. You free?” 

“I’ll check my calendar.” He pulled an imaginary datebook out of his pocket, pretended to consult it with a furrowed brow. “Wouldn’t you know it? Wide open.” 

She grinned that bright Sarah grin, and Nyles thought maybe he wouldn’t mind looking at it forever. 

“Great. Then, it’s not a date.” 

A not-a-date, he decided, was maybe the best kind of date there was.


End file.
